The grumpy thread

[goosey]

Decent food but they could’ve at least got the car correct 

[HillmanImp]

I feel your pain with roofers. We must've had half a dozen round, agreed to get some work done for them to fucking vanish off the face of the earth. Keeps happening. 

I think the only way to actually get them to come will be to replace the whole roof. They're just not interested in a couple of grands worth of repair work at the moment it seems, must be boom time for them. 

I saw one of them walking down our drive so thought, yay, finally gonna get it done but no he was popping round the neighbours to give them a quote and 'would be in touch about ours soon'. I've not heard from him obviously. I've decided not to chase and am trying yet another. 

In the meantime its leaking like a fucking sieve. Brilliant eh? 

[barefoot]

It's not just roofers, round here it's any fucker you want to do anything. 

I've taken to leaving reviews along the lines of;

'Most of the reviews on here tell me that XXXXXX is great and well he might be. He certainly turned up for a look at the job promptly enough and returned to his office promising a price by XXXXXX. Not a peep have I heard from him since. As I say, he might be good, but I wish you the very best of luck actually getting him to turn up and do anything.'

[Zelandeth]

Envelope arrived today containing two developed films and two new ones.

Or rather an envelope that has plainly been opened in transit containing one of the new films and naught else arrived.  

Contacted our local delivery office and they have advised that any loose items that have come out of mail are sent to their "dead mail" centre for disposal.  In the case of something like this, destruction.  There's no mechanism at all in place to recover items from there - if the package is damaged in transit and the items fall out, they're gone.

Didn't really expect much luck finding them, but the fact there's not even a mechanism to *try* is really annoying.

Bet someone has felt the envelope and thought it's a greetings card which might have cash in.

Then another parcel arrived which should have contained a full window catch set for the Invacar...they've only shipped one catch rather than four plus all the hardware.  The contact email just bounces back with an invalid address error too.  What fun.

Of course the one they've sent me is the only one on the car that's not in some way broken.

Edit: The weather strip I've bought for the windows is wrong too... though that's my fault at least.  Was sure it was the same as on a Mini, apparently not.

Balls.

[barefoot]

Some of you may remember back in the mists of time that the clutch cable failed on my Scirocco. I was away on my holidays a couple of days later so I booked it in at my man with the most local spanners for the Monday after I got home. I took the keys down to him (in case he had idle time on his hands) in the meantime, and asked him to order in the parts so he'd be ready. I returned from my holiday to find that he'd not collected it, but on the appointed day he turned up, collected it & away he went. A week later I rang to be told he was waiting for parts, today I rang with much grumpiness to learn that they'd just arrived as he was picking up the phone to talk to me. Arsehole. He's done the job today, and a nice smooth clutch he has created, but I'm not very happy with the fucking about-ed-ness of it all and the chasing that I've had to do.

I will pay up but not with the usual, extreme promptness that he's become used to.

I'm taking the little VW to a classic car show on Saturday. Because I'm thinking of becoming an utter fucking twat, I've toyed with the idea of making up one of those little cards for the front window. 'Suzie, the scruffy silver Scirocco was born on blah blag blah bleugh retch retch VOM etc'.

[Lord Sterling]

So I left my old job last week as speaking to customers was becoming irritating and the pay was quite simply what I called a "child's wage"

I've moved into a back office role that is mlstly WFH with a varied attendance into office, my new role it is quite intense with enquiries coming in and these need to completed using a new system I've not used before. Pay is better but 'inside IR35' umbrella. Even with that, its still better than what I got before.

However, until today, training has been very ad-hoc, they are training a trainer at the moment, I'm not sure what happened to the last one, the team is fairly new though. My laptop that I was told would be sent last week has still not arrived and today I just learned that IT were still configuring it, my new manager who has been most helpful has asked for it to be done and sent today to be with me tomorrow. There is no structure to the training so I'm not sure what the heck is going on, even another girl who just joined today has her laptop and passwords already.

Also, twats on quad bikes, its warm so my windows are open but every now again there always some young arsewipe on a twat bike with the loudest exhaust. Fuck off.

[omegod]

Trying to get the MIL over to see her family in Ireland for what may be  her last trip, usually we fly and grab a hire car at the airport for a few days and last time this cost £240

Fuck me with a gilded kipper......£881 for the same deal this time ....... Jeeeesus christ 

[PhilA]

On 5/24/2022 at 7:04 AM, Zelandeth said:

Basically...we need an entirely new roof.   Well... basically two normal sized and two smaller ones.

Budget, £15-20K.  Joy.

That's not bad, I had to fork out 17k for my roof (not insurance money either, ugh) which is about 2600 sqft. Included removal of old roof, heat sealed rubberized underlayment and new top surface (architectural shingle, wind rated 135mph).

Phil

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Envelope arrived today containing two developed films and two new ones.

Or rather an envelope that has plainly been opened in transit containing one of the new films and naught else arrived.  

Contacted our local delivery office and they have advised that any loose items that have come out of mail are sent to their "dead mail" centre for disposal.  In the case of something like this, destruction.  There's no mechanism at all in place to recover items from there - if the package is damaged in transit and the items fall out, they're gone.

Didn't really expect much luck finding them, but the fact there's not even a mechanism to *try* is really annoying.

Bet someone has felt the envelope and thought it's a greetings card which might have cash in.

was this via Royal mail?

if so I wonder if @Yoss might be able to assist in someway?

 

its just really frustrating to see all the crap that seems to happen to you, you really dont deserve it! and I wish I could do something about it!

 

 

[Yoss]

No chance I'm afraid. Thirty years ago somebody might have tried. It was a public service then, unfortunately it's just a business now that just happens to involve the public. It's not right but it's how it is. 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, omegod said:

Trying to get the MIL over to see her family in Ireland for what may be  her last trip, usually we fly and grab a hire car at the airport for a few days and last time this cost £240

Fuck me with a gilded kipper......£881 for the same deal this time ....... Jeeeesus christ 

I found the same around Easter, when looking to book a car for a week in August. Decided to leave it for a few weeks to see if things improve. BIL hired something over there for a few days and paid around €1,000!

[chadders]

1 hour ago, PhilA said:

That's not bad, I had to fork out 17k for my roof (not insurance money either, ugh) which is about 2600 sqft. Included removal of old roof, heat sealed rubberized underlayment and new top surface (architectural shingle, wind rated 135mph).

Phil

We've had some similar work done. Scaffolding alone was several k and as such we decided to get any additional work that would need doing at height in the reasonably near future, e.g. new gutters etc. doing at the same time.

[Dyslexic Viking]

When we are talking about the subject of house roofs and not to brag, the replacement of the whole roof of the house here cost less than 5000 pounds 7 years ago. The job was done properly with new under and over roof wich was of metal sheets that should last 30 years. Was me, my dad and my dads crazy old uncle who did the job and it took a week. Owning a home does not have to be expensive.

[PhilA]

7 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

37 minutes ago, chadders said:

We've had some similar work done. Scaffolding alone was several k and as such we decided to get any additional work that would need doing at height in the reasonably near future, e.g. new gutters etc. doing at the same time.

Owning a home does not have to be expensive.

Depends. The shingle itself cost best part of 10 grand, the underlayment was 1500. The rest of the cost was 6 guys scrambling about on the roof for the afternoon. Scaffold? Nope. Ladders, and they were throwing the packs of shingles up like baseballs...

[chadders]

I guess it depends on how tall the house is as to whether scaffolding is needed. Ours is 3 storey and each floor has high ceilings.

[PhilA]

3 minutes ago, chadders said:

I guess it depends on how tall the house is as to whether scaffolding is needed. Ours is 3 storey and each floor has high ceilings.

Single storey ranch so ten foot sees you up on the edge of the roof. Shallow pitch, too.

[Dyslexic Viking]

16 minutes ago, PhilA said:

Depends. The shingle itself cost best part of 10 grand, the underlayment was 1500. The rest of the cost was 6 guys scrambling about on the roof for the afternoon. Scaffold? Nope. Ladders, and they were throwing the packs of shingles up like baseballs...

On the roof here we used plates as in the picture. And can add that the house is small by today's standards it helps with costs. And we had no scaffolding even though we probably should have had it.

[PhilA]

4 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

On the roof here we used plates as in the picture. And can add that the house is small by today's standards it helps with costs. And we had no scaffolding even though we probably should have had it.

Nice.

Single storey here means all square footage has roof over it. Makes for a sizeable roof. Each piece of shingle has kevlar on the back, and is held on by 6 nails. 

Not the cheapest, but it's less likely to blow away. Cheaper than not having it on the house when it rains, at least.

[Dyslexic Viking]

4 minutes ago, PhilA said:

Nice.

Single storey here means all square footage has roof over it. Makes for a sizeable roof. Each piece of shingle has kevlar on the back, and is held on by 6 nails. 

Not the cheapest, but it's less likely to blow away. Cheaper than not having it on the house when it rains, at least.

Yes where you live is probably more exposed to extreme weather than what we are in the woods in Norway. But our roof will probably withstand what it may be exposed to here.

[grogee]

I really really shouldn't be grumpy about escaping this poisoned isle and its doom-laden grey skies, but... Here's Birmingham airport: our whole plane has one check in desk. 45min in and we're halfway through the queue. 

Then, funtime security queue to follow. Yay!

[artdjones]

17 hours ago, High Jetter said:

I found the same around Easter, when looking to book a car for a week in August. Decided to leave it for a few weeks to see if things improve. BIL hired something over there for a few days and paid around €1,000!

Yes, at the moment, for a KA or equivalent you are paying something like 1% of the car's price to buy for a day's hire, €650 for 3 days. It's probably down to the extreme shortage of new cars.

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

Yes, at the moment, for a KA or equivalent you are paying something like 1% of the car's price to buy for a day's hire, €650 for 3 days. It's probably down to the extreme shortage of new cars.

Just before covid (Jan 2020), I got a Ka+ from Luton airport for £48 for a whole week. 

[artdjones]

6 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

Just before covid (Jan 2020), I got a Ka+ from Luton airport for £48 for a whole week. 

It was almost too cheap then, some of the companies, Greenmotion in particular made it up by withholding damage deposits. Sometimes hire after hire for the same tiny scratch.

[Zelandeth]

You may recall a few years back there was quite a lot of publicity around issues with some very common tumble driers self immolating and there being a big recall surrounding it.

The issue apparently was lint getting into the heater ducting.

Ours was one of those affected, so was replaced.  Given it was going on for seven years old at that point we weren't too put out by that!

The only way I could see that happening though (the in and out air paths are totally separate) is if the drum is allowed to drop, which opens a gap at the front edge allowing exhaust air into the main outer casing.

This is entirely likely to happen as the rear of the drum was supported on a horribly cheap bushing rather than a proper bearing.  I'd replaced this at least twice on our old machine when it started squeaking.

So... you'd think they would have improved that on the replacement model, right?  Nope!

Ours has chewed it's way entirely through the bushing and about 1/8" through the casing.  It only started squeaking about an hour ago.  This machine arrived just before lockdown I think.

I've already looked inside the covers (I was curious to see what they'd changed - as far as I can see bugger all!) so there's nothing changed with regards to the air path, no change to the rating or position of the thermal cut outs etc...so it really feels like they've just chucked new machines out there and hoped that the problem goes away.  They obviously haven't improved the weak bearing situation.

Off to go buy a couple of replacement bushings for this and making a point of treating it as roughly a yearly consumable.  Fact is it's a £2 part that takes about five minutes to install meant it didn't bother me too much prior to the whole recall thing.

Except it now appears to be a £10-20 part....

I have a feeling that I may be measuring the shaft diameter and ordering a nice good quality ball bearing set to do away with this problem once and for all.

 

[cobblers]

A lot of people say "oh they make them to break just after the warranty ends" and I don't entirely believe this for a lot of products/appliances - as we get better at designing and simulating stuff it's simply inevitable that things will be cheaper and last just long enough to not really annoy the customer, in order to reduce the material cost.

 

However, I am 100% convinced they they are making tumble dryers with many weak points like this entirely on purpose, they really want them to fail early on and in a relatively safe but annoying way

[Zelandeth]

18 minutes ago, cobblers said:

A lot of people say "oh they make them to break just after the warranty ends" and I don't entirely believe this for a lot of products/appliances - as we get better at designing and simulating stuff it's simply inevitable that things will be cheaper and last just long enough to not really annoy the customer, in order to reduce the material cost.

 

However, I am 100% convinced they they are making tumble dryers with many weak points like this entirely on purpose, they really want them to fail early on and in a relatively safe but annoying way

Pretty sure this is still under warranty...though trying to claim on it for the sake of a £10 part really isn't worth the hassle.

Thing is this apparently doesn't fail in a safe but annoying way if you ignore the squeak...which I imagine a not insignificant number of people would...eventually it gets to a point where it can fail in a very much not safe way apparently.

[MikeR]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

You may recall a few years back there was quite a lot of publicity around issues with some very common tumble driers self immolating and there being a big recall surrounding it.

The issue apparently was lint getting into the heater ducting.

Ours was one of those affected, so was replaced.  Given it was going on for seven years old at that point we weren't too put out by that!

The only way I could see that happening though (the in and out air paths are totally separate) is if the drum is allowed to drop, which opens a gap at the front edge allowing exhaust air into the main outer casing.

This is entirely likely to happen as the rear of the drum was supported on a horribly cheap bushing rather than a proper bearing.  I'd replaced this at least twice on our old machine when it started squeaking.

So... you'd think they would have improved that on the replacement model, right?  Nope!

Ours has chewed it's way entirely through the bushing and about 1/8" through the casing.  It only started squeaking about an hour ago.  This machine arrived just before lockdown I think.

I've already looked inside the covers (I was curious to see what they'd changed - as far as I can see bugger all!) so there's nothing changed with regards to the air path, no change to the rating or position of the thermal cut outs etc...so it really feels like they've just chucked new machines out there and hoped that the problem goes away.  They obviously haven't improved the weak bearing situation.

Off to go buy a couple of replacement bushings for this and making a point of treating it as roughly a yearly consumable.  Fact is it's a £2 part that takes about five minutes to install meant it didn't bother me too much prior to the whole recall thing.

Except it now appears to be a £10-20 part....

I have a feeling that I may be measuring the shaft diameter and ordering a nice good quality ball bearing set to do away with this problem once and for all.

 

we bought a small  Bush tumble dryer a few years back ....   its shite , you would be better waving wet clothes around your head in a thunderstorm ..

we had a white knight  before hand and it lasted years ( with the odd repair ) , but that setup is shite , what brand is that ?

[Zelandeth]

2 minutes ago, MikeR said:

we bought a small  Bush tumble dryer a few years back ....   its shite , you would be better waving wet clothes around your head in a thunderstorm ..

we had a white knight  before hand and it lasted years ( with the odd repair ) , but that setup is shite , what brand is that ?

Though same model is badged up as about five different brands I believe.

[MikeR]

7 hours ago, grogee said:

I really really shouldn't be grumpy about escaping this poisoned isle and its doom-laden grey skies, but... Here's Birmingham airport: our whole plane has one check in desk. 45min in and we're halfway through the queue. 

Then, funtime security queue to follow. Yay!

we have a caravan near the lakes 90 mins each way and a car parking place outside the door , no checking in etc , f in 10/10 for travel !!

despite the insurance companies wanting to ream me out for daring to have cancer I have no desire to use an airport

[Floatylight]

14 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Though same model is badged up as about five different brands I believe.

We had a Hotpoint/indesit/Creda tumble dryer and it must have been fixed about 8 times in the 5 years we had it, when the bearing mounting sheared out of the back of the drum we binned it  and bought a Gorenge which is now over 6 years old and never given trouble, built properly with decent components